Ferguson, Phyllis

• Phyllis Wilson

Phyllis Marie Ferguson (née Wilson) was born in 1950 in Quetico, Ontario, a status member of the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation. At the age of 12, she was sent to live with her grandmother, Phyllis Tenniscoe, in Thunder Bay, Ontario. There, the young Phyllis attended Port Arthur Collegiate, where she excelled in sports and enjoyed working with the school’s audio-visual equipment, so much so that a school guidance counsellor encouraged Phyllis to pursue broadcasting as a career.
Upon graduation, Phyllis enrolled in Confederation College, in their new radio and television program. In 1970, Phyllis was hired to assist the location manager of “North of Superior,” one of the very first films shot in the newly invented IMAX format. The film’s director, Graeme Ferguson, would become Phyllis’ mentor, creative partner, and eventually, husband. After “North of Superior,” Phyllis went to host the National Film Board’s weekly “Challenge For Change” slot on local television. Later, she accepted a job with the CBC and became a radio announcer in Whitehorse. She also worked on an Indigenous community newspaper in Ottawa. In 1974, Phyllis rejoined Graeme Ferguson as the sound recordist on his film “Man Belongs to the Earth.” She later returned to television, working as the location manager for CBC’s “The Fifth Estate” and CTV’s “W5.”
Both Phyllis and Graeme eventually returned to the Thunder Bay area – this time to collaborate on a film that Phyllis was directing. Her 1977 documentary short “Nishnawbe-Aski: The People and the Land” explored the effects of change and northern development on the Cree and Ojibwa people of the Nishnawbe-Aski region, through interviews, lyrical vignettes of everyday life, and Phyllis’ own narration. Phyllis made the film pro bono, and it served as a way for indigenous community members to voice their opposition to clear-cutting in northwestern Ontario.
Phyllis and Graeme married in 1982, the same year that they launched another of their collaborative projects: “Hail Columbia!”, with Graeme serving as director and Phyllis co-producing. It was the first in a series of IMAX space films documenting NASA’s space missions in the larger-than-life format. Phyllis went on to co-produce “The Dream is Alive,” (1985) “Blue Planet,” (1990) and “Mission to MIR,” (1997) and was both co-producer and co-director of “Destiny in Space” (1994). Phyllis played a pivotal role in the IMAX Space team, particularly in winning the trust of the astronauts. With her disarming, unaffected style, her natural curiosity, and her regular presence at the Johnson Space Center, she came to be seen as the “glue that held the IMAX Space Team and the NASA 'extended family' together," according to former astronaut and associate administrator of NASA's Space Flight office, Bill Readdy.
After IMAX was sold to investors in 1994, Phyllis retired, and she and Graeme took up full-time residence at their summer home in the Lake of Bays area in Muskoka. She dedicated her time to community issues and charities, traveling, keeping in touch with her family, and taking up the sport of golf. She passed away on March 12, 2021, at the age of 70.

October 5, 2023

• English

“IMAX – Thunder Bay to NASA.” Bayview Magazine. June, 2021. Accessed at http://www.bayviewmagazine.com/article/2021/06/imax-thunder-bay-nasa.
Morrow, Martin. “Filmmaker Phyllis Ferguson was 'ahead of her time': Phyllis Ferguson directed an NFB documentary profiling Ontario Cree and Ojibwa communities and later worked on a series of popular Imax films about NASA space missions.” The Globe and Mail. April 23, 2021.
“We Mourn the Passing of Filmmaker and IMAX Pioneer Phyllis Ferguson.” Giant Screen Cinema Association. March 29, 2021. Accessed at https://www.giantscreencinema.com/Newsroom/we-mourn-the-passing-of-filmmaker-and-imax-pioneer-phyllis-ferguson.

Created by Lindsay Grant, Assistant Media Archivist, University of Toronto Media Commons Archives